Minotauro: “The cowboys helped me”

By Guilherme Cruz

Photo Marcelo Alonso

UFC 102 took place at Randy Couture’s homeland, but Rodrigo “Minotauro” was the only one to smile at the after party. In exclusive interview to TATAME.com after the victory, the Brazilian thanked the “help” that came from the crowd. “Man, the cowboys helped me... They made me pissed and focused (with the boos). I saw that it’d special to win him in his home”, said Nogueira, revaling that he was ready to face it.

“When I entered there and they booed me, it didn’t surprised me at all. I knew it would be like that”, remembers Rodrigo, who was aplaused by the fans after the post fight interview, inside the octagon. “I got the microphone and said that it was an honor to fight Randy Couture, that he always was one of my idols. They liked my performance and I thanked Couture, who’s an idol here in the US”, said the heaavyweight, celebrating his best performance in the UFC.

“It was a great fight, he made my victory bigger, escaped from all of my submissions, went toe to toe... He tried to do his game on the fence, try to hold me, but we only stood in his game for two minutes”, told, surprised with Couture not tapping at the D’Arce choke in the first round. “It was locked, but he’s really good... It was a little slippery, because the UFC puts a little more vaseline in the face and when I passed my arm below the face I couldn’t hold my biceps well”.

Talking about the boxing training for the fight, Nogueira thanks his coach, Luiz Dórea. “It was a litthe hard in the beginning, but I found the distance and hitted him with good punches. I realized that Randy showed what he would do. I’d throw the jab and he’d move his head to the side, but he wouldn’t scape from the whole sequence. He escapes from one punch, scape from another, but he wouldn’t scape from the whole sequence, then I took him down”, said the Brazilian.

ANSWERING FRANK MIR

After beating Couture in a great performance, Nogueira heard Frank Mir’s critics about Joe Rogan and all the coments about the staph infection that Rodrigo suffered before fighting him, at UFC 92. “I don’t demerit his victory, I never did that. He did a great fight that day, it was his fight and I can’t say anything about it. He really beated me, but everybody saw that I wasn’t well. I ddin’t say anything at that time, but everybody saw that”, told Rodrigo, remembering the time he spent in the hospital. “Twenty days before the fight, I stood one week in a hospital bed”.

Beating Couture in the stand up game, Minotauro makes clear that he would like to face Frank Mir one more time. “The same punch I took in this fight and didn’t went down... I wanna fight him again”, said Nogueira, commenting how the duel would be. “A lot different... I won’t say how it’d be, but it’d be a lot different than the first one”, finished Nogueira